“…adventures don’t come calling like unexpected cousins from out of town. You have to go looking for them.”

— some dude

There are so many times in my life when adventure called for me and I answered whole heartedly, but never for work..... until now. The idea was Chrome buys a RV, we travel to America's top 20 cycling cities, and pay tribute to the creative people who, day in and day out, make their city awesome. Chrome Industries' "Wrenched Nation Tour". The words "dream job" came to mind and I wet myself a little in anticipation. Just a little. The plan sounded simple enough, but to really do this tour and these people justice we couldn't just buy a RV and then hit the road doing wicked burn outs along the way. I mean, that's pretty sweet and all, but it's been done. The first step was to find our vessel and without a doubt it was the Eleganza II. It's a RV that you dream about...... and in this dream you are in the 70's, 1976 in fact. Why does that year sound so familiar you ask? You didn't? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. 1976 is America's bicentennial and what better way to explore our great country than in a vehicle of the same year? But we couldn't do that looking like this:

....although, this is pretty great. I wonder what was going on in the 70's that made companies want to color everything different shades of brown? Maybe because the 60's were so hi vis and psychedelic that by the time the 70's rolled around everyone's eyes needed a break. Right? Well regardless of how amazing all of this brown looks, it's not Chrome . That brings us to step two:

This is what you get when you take it to paint, they ask "What color you thinkin' 'bout painting it?" and you respond "MURDER". Chrome One was born, destined to travel the land, leaving remnants of parties in it's wake (insert epic metal jam here). After some fine mechanical tuning my friend, Matt De Rosa, and I took it from HQ in San Francisco to our HUB in Portland. Since our HUB is downtown and parking is about as available as water in a Mid-Western drought, we took it across the river to my house where we could work on it in my driveway, to my neighbor's delight. I couldn't do this job alone so we called on some fellow Chromies, Paul Wilson and Sean Light, to make this a dream come true. Paul and I put on our bikinis, put our clothes on over said bikinis, and started in on the washing.

Wow, that's some sexy stuff right there. Portland is known for its late summer, but this week in early May it was strictly summertime vibes. Good thing too, because it would've been very difficult for the talented Sean "Taco" Light to brand in the pouring rain, although that kid can do anything really. I once saw him jump his BMX over the Grand Canyon through a ring of fire while lighting his cigarette at the same time. It was unbelievable.

When Taco takes on a project he treats it like a competition where he competes to achieve greatness against his greatest adversary..... himself. He wasted no time getting straight to work and sprinted on paint like I've never seen before with such speed and precision. Once the red band was on and dried, he started in on our iconic griffin.

We waited for nightfall to project the griffin on the side because we have not one, but two overhead projectors so we'd better use them for something. During this time we regaled stories of past projector painting projects and shared taping do's and don'ts.

That's my dog, Palmer. I know everyone says their dog is the cutest, but there was a Harvard Study proving that Palmer, is in fact, the cutest dog around. Harvard, dude. Harvard. Well, in Chrome One's standard operating procedure handbook, it states there must be one dog for each captain. I'm not one to break protocol, so I asked Palmer if she was busy this summer and if she wanted to join me on tour. She said something about me having her at hello, whatever that means, and agreed to come with me.

This is not the part where we drive off into the sunset collecting stories and experiences along the way, although that is coming soon enough. The next step is a custom roof deck that will host dj's, roller sprints, and rooftop campers. It's where we will work on our summer time tan and where we will gaze at the stars. This is the beginning of Chrome One.

Come ride with us this Sunday, May 12th for Cyclo Femme; a socially-driven grass-roots celebration of women on bikes. We’ll be riding in each of our HUB cities through our favorite streets & routes in honor of this awesome day and movement. Come out and hang!

Click hereto find a route in your town. These are some of the rides Chrome will be on:

City: CHICAGO, IL
Organizer: Kelsey Coutts
Ride Description:
Chrome Chicago is hosting a neighborhood ride starting and ending at the Chrome HUB. Anyone is welcome to join, this will be a chill afternoon ride, 5-10 miles. We'll end at the Chrome store where folks can enjoy some snacks and beverages on us. We'll also be raffling off some new Welded Transport bags. Ride starts @Noon.

City: PORTLAND, OR
Organizer: Cindy Lewellen
Ride Description:

Chrome PDX will be hitting up the 25-mile road ride from NW Portland to Lents Park in SE where hundreds of other riders will be gathering to celebrate Cyclo Femme and Sunday Parkways. We'll be riding with Sarai Snyder, the founder of Cyclo Femme and Girl Bike Love. Meet at Rapha N.A. Headquarters (1915 NW Kearney St., Portland) at 9a for talk and tattoos, rollout at 9:30a. See you there!

City: OAKLAND, CA
Organizer: Jillian Betterly
Chrome SF will be heading over to the East Bay and meeting in Jack London Square to ride with the Oakland crew, check out the full ride details here